When I train people I am constantly motivating them to lift more weight or to do more reps. I get asked a lot which is more important, lifting more weight or doing more reps. In other words, if week 1 I did 50 lb DB bench press for 8, do I want to try to move up to 10 with 50 or stay at 8 reps and move to 55 ? What does your need dictate? Everyone has a need, either a need to get stronger, bigger or leaner. So how does your need influence A) your rep selection and B) the weight you use.?
If you are trying to get stronger try to stay at your current reps and lift more weight. That way you will force your body to do more work in the same amount of time.
If you are trying to get bigger try to increase your reps with the same weight. That way you will be performing more work over a larger amount of time.
If you are trying to get lean SWITCH IT UP! The first week go for weight, i.e. 3 x 8 reps at 50 lbs, the 2nd week go for TUT or reps, i.e. 3 x 10 reps at 60 lbs, and the last week go for something drastic, i.e. 50 lbs for as many reps as you can do for 3 sets.
What up with volume (sets X reps X weight)?
You could use volume as a way to figure out what you need to do, so the 3 weeks would look like this:
Week 1: (3 sets X 8 reps) 24 reps X 50 lbs = 1200 lbs
Week 2: (3 sets X 10 reps) 30 reps X 50 lbs = 1500 lbs
Week 3: (13 reps the 1st set, 10 reps the 2nd set and 13 reps the 3rd set) 36 reps X 50 lbs = 1800
So, every week I did more work via lifting more weight, but really what did I accomplish? So I lifted more weight every week, but I could have easily gone into the gym and lifted 10 lbs for 200 reps and totaled 2000 lbs. Did I move more weight? Sure as hell did! Is it going to get me where I want to be in terms of my goals? Hell no! The volume way to look at things only works if you are given strict guidelines and if you understand varying training intensities/loads/rep schemes/etc. The muscle doesn’t understand that today it lifted 300 lbs more than it lifted last week. The muscle knows when it is working, how hard it’s working and for how long. That it. If two people were to both lift a total of 10,000 lbs, who would experience more growth? You have no way of knowing unless you know what their reps were, or for how long they worked. If one guy did it over 8 sets of 5 at 250 lbs vs. the other guy doing it over 10 sets of 10 at 100 lbs, who is going to experience more size gains? Obviously the guy who is working for longer with less weight.
What the take home point?
Every 3 weeks switch your program around. Within each 3 week block try to either lift more weight or do more reps every week. Don’t worry about your volume. Just try to beat your reps and/or weight.
May 30th, 2008
Posted by
bendearman |
Uncategorized |
I have been in a funk. A really crappy funk. Sometimes things happen or you’re put in situations where you may not be happy or you may face adversity. Everyone goes through it. Not everyone knows exactly how to cope with it. I am (or I guess was) a person who, up to 2 years ago, was very hard to upset, driven, almost perpetually happy, full of “peanut butter” (ask and you shall receive), had a better outlook on life, and a whole bunch of other positive things. I am not that person now. That changes today. I am in a situation where I am not happy. And like a little winy bitch who has nothing better to do with their life than complain and point the finger at everyone else for the root of their problems, I took it out on people who didn’t deserve it. But most importantly I let it change who I was as a person. The only one who can change who you are is yourself. When people lose faith or lose the will then they change. I have that faith…but I lost my will…but thank the little 8.6 lb tiny baby Jesus I found the will again.
I am the first person to point out to someone who is bitching about how crappy their situation is, that if they aren’t doing anything to make the situation better, then they have accepted what and where they are in life…and really they should shut up because all that wasted energy can be funneled into finding a way to help themselves. It’s time I listened to my own advice. No more bitching, no more being a different person. I want…screw that, I will be the old me. Really, what do I have to be upset about? I have one of the best jobs in the world! I get paid to laugh, have a good time and yell at people. I mean…people pay me to torture them. Yeah I know, it’s exercise, but you can define torture as so many different ways, good and bad. I have a good paying job, great friends, my health, awesome clients, my family and an amazing girl friend. People come to me to help change their lives. That is some deep shit right there. Some times (well, ok a a lot more then sometimes) we get caught up in the money aspect of life. Yes, we all have to live and eat, but I believe if you are good at something that you have an obligation to “pay it forward and backward”. I am a good trainer (some might say great, or amazing or even the best…that’s their opinion…and I encourage that opinion full heartedly) and I’ve forgot my obligation. You may not be able to pay the money I ask, but if you come to me for help, I will find a way to make it happen. No more being upset or in a funk…after all…
What do I have to be upset about?
I will be me.
May 22nd, 2008
Posted by
bendearman |
Uncategorized |
There are 3 main causes of joint pain: lack of mobility, lack of stability and lack of strength. I am not going to talk too much about the first two since they are much more involved. However, the lack of strength is fairly easy to explain and test. Every activity you do requires a sufficient level of strength in the muscles around the joint and the muscles above and below the joint. For instance when doing a traditional step up, the muscles around the knee must be strong, as well as the muscles at the hip and ankle. If there is a weak link in that chain the stress and extra work is shifted to other muscles. If you experience pain immediately upon doing the exercise that can be an indication of a lack of strength, mobility or stability…you just don’t know sometimes until you do more tests.
However, if you can do step ups at 2 sets of 10 with no pain, and in the middle of your 3rd set of 1o you experience knee pain then it’s probably a muscular weakness somewhere along the chain. Here is the rationale behind that assumption: .ifferent muscles have different thresholds at which they fire. Some muscles fire at high thresholds (the glutes when doing a dead lift). Some muscles fire at lower thresholds (the deep stabilizers of the hips when walking). The lower threshold muscles have a higher fatigue level, i.e. they can work longer, they have to. Anything and everything activates them so they had better have a lot of endurance. The higher threshold muscles have a lower fatigue level, i.e. they only fire when they are needed and thus are not used to working that long. The pain caused by weakness is due to the smaller muscles “bailing out” and forcing the larger muscles to take up more and more of the work that the smaller muscles should be doing. Eventually, the bigger muscles get so ”overloaded” with work that they then start to “bail out”…the result is joint pain. (this is a HUGE OVER simplification, but you get the idea)
Take it another way. In the military you are as strong as the weakest link in your team. If one guy is weak, everyone else has to pick up the slack for that guy and work harder. The result is excessive stress, higher injury rates, internal team strife, etc. etc. Get the weak guy strong and the team’s overall mental, emotional and physical health increases.
Got it?
May 7th, 2008
Posted by
bendearman |
Uncategorized |
